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- Susannah Birkwood reports on local responders facing increasing danger as aid cuts reduce the security capacity of humanitarian organizations without international reach.
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In Afghanistan, human rights activist Horia Mosadiq saw international aid workers move through Kabul in armored vehicles and return to secure compounds, while local staff and organizations relied on rented cars and absorbed risks that followed them home. Donors, she said, were often more willing to fund a half-a-million-dollar armored vehicle for an INGO than $10,000 for a local group’s safer transport.
Mosadiq, who said she and her family have faced repeated threats to their safety due to her advocacy around human rights violations and war crimes, said the disparity reflects a long-standing weakness in the aid system: Security funding has never been distributed to reflect who is taking the greatest risks.
Now, as aid budgets shrink, security specialists warn that even the systems larger aid agencies rely on to work safely in dangerous places are coming under pressure. In 2025, at least 326 humanitarians were recorded as killed, bringing the total number of humanitarians killed in the last three years to over 1,010. That number is almost triple the 377 aid workers recorded as killed globally over the three years prior.
Jon Novakovic, executive director of the Global Interagency Security Forum, or GISF, said cuts are affecting centralized security resources many aid agencies rely on, such as technical expertise, training, and travel.
Some organizations that previously had five or six central security staff are now down to two, he said. Meanwhile, training is being cut or moved online.
Neil Elliot, global head of security at Oxfam International, said the INGO had lost one of its five regional security roles, equivalent to a fifth of its regional security capacity, since the cuts came in. Some country teams, he said, were considering reducing full-time security posts or combining them with other functions, even while seeking to continue programming in high-risk places.
“The simple fact is, yes, it’s had an impact,” Elliot said.
Read the full article about aid cuts worsening security capacity by Susannah Birkwood at Devex.